The gory details - as sent to my sponsors

42km achieved! Race Report

Well I hoped to finish my 42k in a time between 5 and 5.5 hours and I just scraped through with 5:27:39.

The first three hours I felt comfortable, happy & elated. I worked hard to stay focused and to be aware of the beautiful city around me, to be grateful for the superb weather, and concentrated on the logistics of my pace and not expending too much effort! At the 21km mark I was right on track for a finish of 5:10 and feeling strong.

At around 24km I felt my pace decline and the struggle start to begin. I knew I would have to walk eventually and started bargaining with myself over what that might entail, what I could still feel proud of and what I would feel disappointed by.

At 26km I tested a short power walk. From there up until about 30km I alternated 2 minutes running and 2 minutes power walking. By now it was a real struggle. Mentally I was struggling to compute when I had taken my last energy gel and when it was time for the next one.

I was really encouraged that I was able to keep walking so fast though. I was passing a lot of strong, fit looking people who were walking slowly. I kept looking for km markers to see what my pace was, I felt right on a precipice.... I kept telling myself it was still possible to make it in under 5:30. My heart rate was elevated above the level I had been running at in the first half, just walking.

Up until this point I had really maintained my goal of keeping happy, having a smile on my face, saying thank you and hello to spectactors and volunteers. There wasn't too much more of that from here on out until the very end!

At 32km I passed an older runner wearing a spartan marathon t shirt and then he passed me, and then I passed him. When it looked like I had passed him for the final time I told him we could race each other, and we started power walking together pulling each other forward. We kept that going for another 5km. This was his 31st Melbourne Marathon, can you imagine! He really kept me fighting and when we separated at 37km, I focused every single ounce of energy I had on beating the clock at 5:30.

At 40km I felt myself choke up with emotion and it was so very hard to keep moving, even with so little left to go. I kept myself moving by thinking of the clock. I tested out my legs with a little jog. I only made it about 50 metres but I hoped I had what I needed to run the last 400m around the G. When it came to the last km I could hear music coming from the G. I could also see a big blur of orange, the finished cantoo group, up ahead. I wanted them to see me run in but it was more than I thought I had left.. could I do it? I decided I could and started running, very slowly and gingerly. When I passed the cantooers screaming my name and giving me high fives I was so choked up with tears, and then Lyn the director of CanToo came out and ran with me to the entrance of the G. I didn't have time to stop but I took a few deep breaths to get the emotion off my face. I wanted to run around the G with a big smile and take it all in.

My legs had other ideas. I kept a smile on my face but I barely noticed where I was or what I was doing, I had to really focus on counting in my head to keep running. I managed to kick up the pace at the very end, I was so stoked.

Finishing was incredibly overwhelming! I have been incredibly sore since, waking up all during the night Sunday in pain. I am still very sore in my abdominals and a bit queasy, and very sore in the legs especially my quadriceps.

But so happy to have achieved my goal!

Sponsorship - Over $3800 raised for Cure Cancer Australia

I am absolutely stoked that with your generous support we have raised over $3800. I have three weeks left to fundraise and will keep striving towards my goal of $5000. The Melbourne Marathon group of marathoners, half marathoners and 10kers have raised over $100,000 so we have funded more than one year of cancer research, it's a terrific accomplishment.

I did it!

Yesterday I completed 42.2k of the Melbourne Marathon in about 5:27 (official times to come).

Full race report later today, I am stoked!